It is well known to those of ordinary skill in the art that the resolution of a far field optical imaging system is limited by the diffraction limit. The diffraction-limited spot size is approximately λ/(2×NA), where A is the free space wavelength and NA=n sin θ is the numerical aperture of the lens used, where n is the refractive index in the object space and θ is the half-angle subtended. It is also well known to those of ordinary skill in the art that information about the nanoscale (i.e. sub-wavelength) structure of an object being imaged is encoded in its optical near field. However, conventional optical imaging systems, such as lenses, cannot capture these evanescent fields, which decay exponentially in the vicinity of the surface of the object. This is the main reason why conventional far field optical imaging systems have diffraction-limited optical resolutions. A practical system for super-resolution optical imaging must be capable of capturing these near field optical components, and then converting them into propagating modes that can be used for imaging the objects in far field, but with resolution exceeding the diffraction limit. An ideal system for super-resolution optical imaging must also be able to magnify a sub-diffraction limited image. Thus, improved systems for super-resolution optical imaging are still needed in the art.